GrandCentral makes the move to GoogleVoice

Posted on Mar 12, 2009

I have had google alerts set up for GrandCentral for quite some time now and was jumping for joy when I heard the news late last night that they (Google) were finally getting things going.

I was fortunate enough to sign up for GrandCentral when in 2007 when they were still taking beta-testers and was able to secure two numbers (208-Idaho and 415 San Francisco).  I use quite a few of the features and the only issue (and it was a big one) that I had was that here in Boise quite a few people use CableOne (which personally I think sucks) as their tv cable, internet and phone service and CableOne VoIP users were not able to call my GrandCentral number.  There would just get “air” with no message, no nothing.  This really sucked since I had just, moved, just printed business cards and found out when my UPS mailbox office tried to call me for a Federal Express delivery and couldn’t get through.  In the long run I had a costly work-around with numbers forwarded, skype-in, a Voip line, and then I bought a MagicJack (more on that) etc., I was not happy since the last thing I wanted to do was to spend more on a service that started out to be, what I thought was cost-effective move on my part.

I upgraded my account today.  One of my accounts updated fine but the other one seems to have not gone through the process yet.  Upgrading was seemless and everything seems to have transferred over ok.  I have to change some web-buttons but they aren’t really used that much so it’s not urgent.

The transcribing is pretty good.  The process took about 5-10 mins to appear in my inbox.  The voicemail was there in my inbox but transcribing too a few minutes more.

Check out the results.

Voicemail:

I don’t like giving out my cell number but I do like being able to talk to people when I need to.  The main premise behind GrandCentral (and now GoogleVoice) is that you have one number that can follow you everywhere.  I like the “one number concept”.  I like being able to “screen voicemails”, I like being able to get messages online.  I like a lot of things.  So I’m very glad this is out there.  I would consider paying for this if they completely fix the issue of certain VoIP services not being able to get through.

The call widgets are interesting…not sure if people will use them.  I’d like to see a report on success stories.